Alpine and foreign cultures

In the remote kingdom of Zanskar, in the Northern Himalayas, “Becoming a Woman” recounts the true and moving story of a friendship shattered by destiny. Two best friends have to part and to leave their families forever. Tenzin will be married to a... more

In March 2001, two enormous Buddha statues were blasted by specialists of the terror group Al-Quaida in the remote Bamiyan valley in Afghanistan. The old stone giants had been a unique monument for the advanced culture which blossomed along the... more

In the tiny Artic village of Old Crow a father and son are reunited after 20 years apart. Stanley Senior is a hunter, a rugged man of the land steeped in Native Gwitchin traditions. Troubled Stanley Junior, who was raised in Seattle, immerses... more

We are high up in the Alps. The air is thin with little oxygen. Despite the uninviting circumstances, people live here. The 22 inhabitants of the Swiss village Juf in the canton Grisons, which at 2126 m is the highest village in the Alps populated... more

The Kogis Indian culture in the North of Columbia is the last heritage of the important pre-Columbian Culture. Their thousands of years old tradition is based on a deep relationship to nature, to the living beings. Amazing close-up filming... more

In the Arctic global warming is a cultural issue. The ice is melting at a rate never seen before by the Inuit people. If it continues the way it’s going, it may change the movements of the animals they hunt — the hunt they have tried to maintain... more

Jan Wanggaard was a World Champion windsurfer in the 1980´s. He left the sport at the peak of his career to study industrial design. He then moved to Lofoten, where he has lived since 1989. The film follows Wanggaard during three years, from... more

One of the most stunning, untouched landscapes on Earth is found in the heartland of Asia: Mongolia stretches from the impenetrable forests of Siberia in the North to the Chinese wall in the South. A huge variety of rare animal species are found... more

The Kalash live in the high valleys of the Hindukush, in the north west of Pakistan, near the border with Afghanistan. During centuries they have succeeded in resisting the Islamization. However, during the last decades, many of them have given... more

In the province of Yunnan, in the south west of China, the rice farmers have cultivated their land in a most exceptional way. In order to run a complicated but highly efficient hydration system, they have built rice terraces up to an altitude of... more

In an age of fierce debate over globalization, environmental protection and saving endangered species, we have overlooked the most valuable imperiled resource we have: the diversity of our own kind. The culture of humanity is at risk... more

After working as a ship’s officer for ten years, Benedikt Stirner returns home to the mountain farm, where his father is dying. Benedikt’s mother Maria is in grief, because the old Max Stirner does not want to see Benedict, who used to be his... more

A little village in the Swiss Alps, called Kiental, served Friedrich Dürrenmatt as an inspiration for his play “The Visit”. In the fifties the mysteriously unknown camera man Landtwing filmed the life of the village people. Christina Zurbrügg –... more

Some of the valley-inhabitants describe the landscape where they dwell as the largest pedestrian zone of Europe. In the high season, masses of tourists from Oberstdorf come to hike and are overwhelmed by the magnificent landscape. Nevertheless it... more

Lingshi is a mountain village located at an altitude of 4000 metres in the Greater Himalayas of Bhutan. It takes a four days trek to get there. The yak rearing community of Lingshi live in a pristine environment. It is difficult, yet peaceful with... more

The Pamir Kirghiz are a tribe of some 2,000 people from the Pamir region of Central Asia. For the last 27 years they have lived in exile in Eastern Turkey. In 2005 an Anglo-Turkish film crew arrives in their village to work with the tribe to tell... more

In an age of technological integration and urban life, people turn to the natural world for a wilderness experience. What draws us to the remote corners of land and sea when we realize something in our lives is missing? In this documentary using... more

French horse expert Jacqueline Ripart has found her mission in her efforts to revive the breeding of the “original” Kyrgyz horse. Every year she organises a large riding festival at the mountain lake Issyk-Kul, with the aim that the mares and... more

The Hörnlihütte is situated at an altitude of 3,260 meters, at the foot of the Matterhorn, a mountain in Switzerland widely known for its remarkable shape. Every summer the hut is visited by thousands of people, both tourists and alpinists, who... more

The Zafimaniry community is the sole remaining repository of a unique woodcraft culture that was once widespread on the island of Madagascar. Their woodcrafting is an art that expresses the soul of this community of 25,000 people. They're now... more

Peru – a calm mountain region far from big cities. Smooth clouds nestle on picturesque rocks, a lama grazes peacefully, when suddenly a cry interrupts the silence: “Goaaal!!!” A group of women throw their arms into the air. “With every goal we... more

Wat Pa Luangta Bua is a monastery of meditation, far away from any civilization, about 200 kilometres west of Bangkok, a place full of silence, peace and harmony. Every afternoon, the same ritual can be observed: nonchalant Buddhist monks take... more

On the distant steppes of Mongolia, using only simple tools, strength and ingenuity, a nomad builds a home much the way his ancestors have for the past one thousand years. “Mujaan” (The Craftsman) is a vivid window to a disappearing way of life in... more

The ancient Polynesians settled the giant Polynesian Triangle aboard seafaring canoes a thousand years ago. The navigators could pinpoint tiny islands in the vastness of the Pacific by reading the stars, the winds and the seas swells. It was an... more

Visioning Tibet chronicles the work of the American doctors who have founded the Tibet Vision Project. Their mission is to end preventable blindness in Tibet – the country with the highest rate of untreated cataract blindness in the world - by... more

The nineteen-year-old nomad son Norbu has kidnapped his bride, the young Tashi, and takes her from Leh, the capital city of Ladakh, to his extended family in the Changthang. Wife stealing is nothing unusual for the Changpa, but it is the custom to... more

An ancient myth, a submerged city, an unknown culture: together with a television crew, the adventurer Bruno Baumann looks for the legendary Shangri La in the mountain desert of Tibet. According to the myth, Shangri La was a kind of paradise in... more